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Steeling Peace of Mind! (578)

Caseydia

Ace Trainer
Riley is hot. I was hoping the guy would be Ash's dad becuase of the similarites in looks but nevermind. I do hope Ash grows up to be that handsome though.
 

G50

No longer posting
This episode was ok... It was cool to see Lucario again. It was great to finally see Iron Island in this episode. It was odd to see all the Steel-Type Pokemon, even Empoleon and Lucario acting strange. It was interesting how Lucario was starting to act evil as the episode ended on a cliffhanger. It was cool to see Riley for the 1st time. It was interesting to see Barry and TR team up in this episode.

49/100
 

wind21

Well-Known Member
This is a pretty slow paced episode (which I think most episodes involving the evil teams tend to be-we have so few of them, though, that maybe this isn't a fair generalization), with a fantastic ending. There are the customary "pointless" battles, in my opinion anyway, with the millions of Golbat that seems to be just a requisite for episodes such as this; little details like that slow the pace down, but I guess are essential. There are also quite a few scenes with the berserk steel type pokemon, a little more than necessary. We get double dosages with Barry and Ash, Dawn, Brock, and it is a little much. Riley's overly dramatic entrance with Lucario is tied into this, so that adds a little to my annoyance with this. This isn't the first time we've seen Lucario, so some of the episodes attempts to show off Lucario as really cool are a little irritating-but, to the episodes credit, it's not like Ash, Dawn, and Brock act like they're not aware of its abilities. So it's really not too bad. In fact, the scenes with the mad steel pokemon are really quite shocking; you sense how serious the situation is, and that their lives are really at stake. And if Ash, Brock, Dawn, or Barry aren't careful, you know that they can be killed. That's really the reality of the episode, and there's a very atmosphere on this front. The tiresome thing of the constant exposure to these pokemon is not that the situation is not serious or impactful, but b/c you know that just by talking to the steel pokemon, the situation can't be resolved. You're aware of the problem with the steel pokemon, but you know the answer's not going to be found by interacting with them. I think that just a little too much time was spent on this. Also, the coincidence that Barry finds TG's hideout before Riley does is also a little hard to believe.

Again in this episode, you see how the group dynamics work. In fact, I think Ash shows himself to be a really complicated character here. His concern for Barry, and the way he tries to soothe Barry's touchy feelings that he can't help his own pokemon are nice shows of maturity from Ash. His recklessness in trying to help the steel pokemon, and even the final scene when Lucario loses control where Ash immediately jumps toward Lucario show his impulsive nature and tendency to act on his emotions as we know and really love. Dawn is critical of Ash in this episode (unlike last episode, where she was more surprised and lenient), really not thinking that his plans are going to work. Brock, again, is quite quiet. And it really works. You don't feel like he's the overly wise one; that's not it, b/c as reckless as Ash can be, at some level, you can tell he knows what he's doing (and that Brock respects that; you can tell the two work really well together in this episode: the planning at the beginning of which gym to go to, as well as the way Brock is noting how the Lairon is reacting to Pikachu's attacks rather than being critical of Ash's plan). But he is the most rational, and it's his persuasion that convinces Riley to allow the group to travel along with the aura guardian (right? is he an aura guardian?).

TR's characterization is spot on. They make it clear who they are: thieves, yeah, but thieves with hearts. It's also funny seeing how connected they are in the normal day to day lives of our heroes, with Jessie knowing which contest the twerps are heading for.
 

Bulba the Great!

We Do Not Sow
I like how the first few shots of Lucario here completely reflect Aaron's Lucario from Movie 8. And Ash and Brock's reaction is ambiguous enough that they could have seen the similarities, or not, depending on whether we count the movies as canon.
 

Lorde

Let's go to the beach, each.
I liked seeing Barry training his Heracross and Empoleon at the start. The whole thing about Steel-type Pokemon being affected on Iron Island was an interesting subplot here and I especially liked seeing Riley's Lucario knock that wild Aggron out. I also really loved Barry and Team Rocket hanging out together as well as seeing my good sis Mars.
 

JudySpell

Banned
This Iron Island episode was just an excuse to shove Lucario down our throats even more sadly but at least Riley was amazing. 6/10
 

Mrs. Oreo

Banned
It was cool seeing Iron Island in the anime, tho I felt bad for Barry's Empoleon. I liked how all the steel types were running around attacking Ash's friends, plus I liked seeing Mars again and Riley. :3
 
So Barry was shown training on Iron Island, which was a nice touch + Riley looking like Sir Aaron should've been brought up by Ash here at least.
 

Wednesdayz

Meowth fanatic
I really hate Team Galactic and this episode doesn't improve my opinion of them at all. On the other hand, Barry makes things enjoyable as he always does and the plot with the Steel Pokemon going berserk was suspenseful.
 
The proper answer to that is "it doesn't ****ing matter if it was in the games because the anime is not the game, you nitwit". Or maybe I need to remember to put Maxim on ignore the next time I go to BMGf. ("are we getting the HIGHLY IMPORTANT FUEGO IRONWORKS IN THE ANIME NOOOOW? No? We're getting a fun filler about Rotom? But they have the Old Chateau in the wrong area. Waaaaaaaah, they ruined everything!")

The wrathful cynicism of having read this sort of thing after way too many years on Pokemon forums aside, no they are not on Iron Island in the games, but realistically a small rodent like that would find its way onto any island
that gets more than one boat every hundred years.



And now onto the important part of the post!

-Nope, still can't get used to Empoleon's hilariously high-pitched cry.
-Jun is oddly calm about his penguin being spontaneously electrocuted.
-But not as calm about his penguin turning on him soon afterwards!
-Another episode, another reason for High Touch to get stuck in my head for hours.
-AshnCo is planning its trip to the Arctic, I see. I do hope that Snowpoint City has more...civilization in it than it did in the games(not that hard, just give it ten buildings instead of five), but that's a topic for another time.
-Aha! Don't think you can fool me, Nurse Joy! I see you using that Chansey as unpaid cleaning staff!
-Iron Island seems like it has quite a party going on today!
-The Return of the Revenge of the Rebirth of the Magikarp Sub!
-Ash appears to have caught Impatience from Jun. Settle down Ash, I doubt the boat is that slow. Unlike you! (ba-dum-tish!)
-The part of Iron Island we see is above ground(unlike the games). Which makes sense, since it's kind of easier to build things above ground, and it'd be kind of silly to assume that there's absolutely nothing above ground anyway.
-At this point, when a lot of Pokemon with a shared trait(like, say, type) are all acting weird in a small area, you'd think the Pokemon Center's first priority would be to move said Pokemon out of the area. Especially when they mysteriously can't find anything causing said Pokemon to act strangely before a 10 year old boy in a hat shows up. Oh well, if anyone in the anime learned from the past, we wouldn't have a show.
-DIGLETT DIG! (sans trio trio trio) This show clearly doesn't have enough Diglett, seeing as I'm still amused whenever one pops up.
-Remember kids: Putting yourself in danger by standing directly in front of a rampaging wild animal stampeding towards you is a good idea!
-Steelix & Hyper Beam: Part of a complete breakfast! (*Water Gunning Milotic not included)
-Yes Ash, yelling at angry wild Pokemon will make them stop. How do you come up with these great plans?
-Uh oh, Ash was just abducted by a jazz musician
-A jazz musician cosplaying as Sir Aaron, that is.
-At this rate the only thing people/Pokemon won't be able to use aura for is making breakfast.
-And yes, aura is protecting Lucario from the madness. Showoff.
-Uh, Jun? Team Rocket didn't do anything wrong. So why did you make Heracross attack them?
-Jun just fits right in with any group, doesn't he? I guess we can all use a little ADHD spazz running around with us!
-Oh crap...BOWLCUTS. We're all doomed! DOOOOOMED!
-Seeing Purugly smack various Aron with its tail is oddly amusing.
-Seeing TR work together with the good guys is always so awesome. Mostly because it means that TR is allowed to win a little. Usually.
-Unless they're fighting TG, in which case nobody on the good guys' side is allowed to win.
-Jun? What is stopping you from using Staraptor to fly out of the ruins? Surely it's not that bad at dodging attacks in midair. I mean, the only possible reason to get out the hard was is avoiding TG on the way back, right?
-Glowing obelisks, statues of legendary Pokemon, and engravings of legendary Pokemon? That can't be good.
-And a laser hits Mt. Coronet! Presumably opening up Spear Pillar. Mmm, plot advancement tastes delicious.
-Lucario's glowing black! Better run, guys!
-Gen? Is something stopping you from putting Lucario back in its Pokeball?
-According to the preview, yes there is! Whoops!

A pretty okay episode, it's obviously just setup for the next episode with all the real action but it does that job well enough.

I should not have laughed at this as much as I did. Literally, I was in class while I was reading it and I was trying to stop my shoulders shaking.

But, yeah, episode.

Not including villain arc episodes and OVAs, this as well as the next episode have got to be my favourites from the anime.

-I just realised how Barry's Japanese voice contradicted every one of my headcanons that I had while playing the game.
-say it with me three times! Book, stop flirting! Brock, stop flirting! BROCK, STOP FLIRTING! (Sorry but that show was my childhood)
-Ayyyy, we got em now waitwaitwait wut where are you going-
-so Iron Island is predominantly above ground in this rendition of it? Ok then. I guess at least they don't have to deal with getting lost and finding dead ends-
-Oh wow Piplup.
-Ash, um.... electric is immune to ground... Ash.... Ash- oh you know what I give up.
-aaaaand now you've gone and thrown yourself in front of the Pokemon. Ash, you do know it'll likely kill you right? Remember the Mewtwo movie? Oh wait...
-over-dramatic Riley entrance is over-dramatic. AND I LOVE IT.
-oh look a Lucario - wait don't tell me there will be references to that movie....
-so, you can use aura, right Riley? So why are you asking Lucario to do all the stuff for you?
-*pfft* haha Team Rocket not getting a chance to say their logo because of Barry is amazing.
-and then Barry asking team rocket for compensation, only for Meowth to answer "but we don't have any money anyway" is f**king brilliant *snrk*
-surprise attack... surprise attack? SURPRISE ATTACK-
-lol jk.
-dat Galactic b**ch is mean, dude!
-is Ash still trying to use the power of friendship? Hope not....
-I HAVE THE KEY!
-and this key just has an instinct to float up to that indentation? How?
-now I'm imagining Mars on her tiptoes trying to reach the keyhole and failing...
-EXTREME HYPER BEAM!
-Shield-Break Ex Machina...
-Lucario's glowing black... but show come none of the others did that? Empoleon didn't....
-so apparently now they're gonna get hit! Ooh, what'll happen- ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!

Despite my satirical thoughts, I seriously enjoyed this episode. Brock felt like he was only being useful for the sake of information, and Dawn got kinda wasted, but that was about it! When it comes to referencing the eighth movie, I am probably the only who was glad about how Ash didn't reference it that much. I always felt like aura was forced onto Ash simply because he was the main protag, and felt like it should've been "use aura a lot or don't have it at all". The way it felt forced led me to not like the eighth movie as much as I should've, so I would rather that people remained quiet about it. This episode remained quiet about it. Yayyyy. Barry meeting Team Rocket this episode was also one of the funniest things I've ever seen. I was about to prepare myself for another Rocket intro (it can get on my nerves) but when Barry just didn't care I laughed so much. Also the music is amazing.

But then I need to state the thing I adored about this episode.

Oh my f**king god, is it just me or is Riley one of the most awesome characters in the whole anime? And hottest?

For this episode specifically, 8/10. Not enough of Dawn and Brock actually being useful.
 
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Mrs. Oreo

Banned
Riley looking like Sir Aaron should've been brought up by Ash here at least.

Well I think that by the time this episode had aired everyone already knew that Riley was based off of Sir Aaron however. So adding another reference to that might not have been necessary here.
 

Wednesdayz

Meowth fanatic
Tbh, I'm kind of wondering why Barry was even at Iron Island. I didn't mind his presence, but he seemed like the odd man out. :p
 
Tbh, I'm kind of wondering why Barry was even at Iron Island. I didn't mind his presence, but he seemed like the odd man out. :p

He is mentioned in-game to have trained there, since he recommends to MC that training there is a good idea. Perhaps it was a reference to that.
 

Vipsoccermaster

Well-Known Member
Good episode. It was cool seeing Riley (being based on Sir Aaron from Lucario and the Mystery of Mew) with Lucario here, even teaming up with Ash and his friends. Quite the cliffhanger at the end. Seeing Barry and Team Rocket team up was great, even though they fell flat by Mars.
 

Leonhart

Imagineer
I loved the idea of the Ginga-dan's scheme on Steel Island causing Steel-types such as Gen's Lucario and Jun's Emperte to go berserk. Gen's likeliness to Arlon was a mystery, which I wish had been explained in detail this episode.
 

Daizy

I call you honey
So Riley was being treated almost the same as Sir Aaron which makes sense just looking at his design. I was thinking that we would see Ash's Chimchar evolve in this episode, but that didn't happen.
 

Leonhart

Imagineer
Satoshi's Hikozaru evolving here on Steel Island would've overshadowed the Lucario advertising, so I can see why the evolution didn't occur in spite of the opportunity.
 

Scorbunnie

Well-Known Member
I thought Iron Island would show a bunch of mining tunnels or caves like in the games so I wasn't expecting just a rocky island with steel types going crazy. Team Galactic's plan was dangerous since the angry Pokemon could've killed Ash and Riley at any time.
 

KyogreThunder

Call of Fate
An alright episode. I felt sorry for Empoleon and the rest of the Steel-types here. It was nice to see Riley and Lucario, even if the latter eventually went berserk due to Team Galactic's machine. Barry losing to Golbat was puzzling, and Skarmory taking damage from Sludge Bombmade no sense, though.
6/10
 
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